FOTOS

"Somos los mejores" means "We are the best"...so naturally we needed a picture of that.

This kind of looks like we are a boy band...but Elder Frost was just taking pictures like crazy!

Great companionship...not quite sure why I look angry, it was kind of cold, and basically I was in the midst of a huge monument of apostasy...it takes its toll

Ramos Mejia- Week #53

Tribute to the King

Hey all,

Well, just last week I thought all was well, my mission was going great, I felt like I was more focused than ever, and shock hit me like a cinderblock to the back of the head. MICHAEL IS DEAD!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I found out on Thursday. We found this awesome guy while clapping houses, and he invited us in, only for me to walk straight into the house and see on the television the words “murió Michael” and clips of him singing…I kept in the initial shock, and we taught the lesson and went back outside, and I was like, “Elder Sabey, I have pressing news for you. Don’t be alarmed, but something serious has happened.” He asked me to proceed, and I shed a tear and told him the news…he was equally devastated. Anyway, when I first found out a panic ran through my head, because I just knew I was missing out on some great pop culture history…but I got over it quickly. It has been fun though, because in Argentina, if somebody wants to listen to music, they blast it so it can be heard in the street, seriously everybody does it, it is like a culture thing, but usually it is reggaeton or cumbia or some kind of Spanish music…but not this week baby. I say “Beat It” to the Spanish music, and keep blasting Michael Jackson. “Don’t stop til you get enough!” “I want to rock with you!” Good stuff…classics…but seriously, it has been interesting teaching lessons when the neighbor is just cranking Thriller so that the whole world will hear it. We have gotten a few comments on our inherent “head bobbing” that we can’t help doing while we are in houses. You know me; I just cannot help spontaneously breaking out into dance, even if it is for two seconds, so it is really hard to keep my composure with all this going on. We were in this house and we walked out to the sound of “Billie Jean” and something took over my body, and I couldn’t help just kind of doing a little move while going down the stairs and out the gate. Next thing I know we hear a “Look at the Americans dancing to Michael Jackson!” I then felt bad and had to repent…I am supposed to be a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ. Michael just has that effect on me. It is just way too easy to dance to…abc…easy as…123…I can’t believe I am missing out on all the tribute material going on…tape it! ha

So one last Michael Jackson story of the week and I will move on. On Sunday, which for some reason was better than usual this week, my Sacrament experience was really special. I know special is a stupid word to use there, but I really can’t think of another one. So either I am progressing spiritually, or they put something in the water, but it was just great. So we had lunch with a sweet young couple on Sunday afternoon. The husband’s name is Walter…yeah!...and I forgot the wife’s name, but they are recently married and look like they are just loving the married life. They are two really funny people, and we were laughing almost the whole lunch. She is expecting their first child so they are really excited. Good strong members, he is a returned missionary. Well, we walk in, and go into the dining room, and I look over and see three large candles that kind of made a pyramid, and at the top, the 20 year anniversary edition of the Michael Jackson Thriller Album…I about choked, and said, “Sister Richart, did you really do this!?!” She just kind of laughed, and Walter comes into the room with incense, head bowed, and hands it to me to light the candles…I didn’t know if it was against our religion to do so , but his father is in the stake presidency…so I paid my last respects, lit the candles, and we sat down to eat. She told us that she has been glued to the TV because MTV and VH1 are just playing non-stop M.J. videos…dang…oh well.

In missionary news this week, Elder Sabey and I were interviewed here in the offices by four high school girls. They came to the door on Saturday morning, and said they are writing something up for their school and wanted to speak with a representative…that’s us. So they interviewed us for like 2 hours…we literally taught something from every lesson, and gave them commitments for all of them, and gave them all copies of the Book of Mormon, and pamphlets, and article of faith cards, and everything we have…I am the material man, so I can do that sort of thing. They talked to us a lot about Mary, and if we believed she was a virgin, and why we don’t pray to her, then wanted to know about the history of the church, if we worship Joseph Smith, why we are on missions if we are only 20, if priests can get married in our church, etc. It was actually really fun, and we got them interested in the message to the point where they stopped asking us questions on their sheets of paper, and started asking us what they really wanted to know. Also, they took a picture with us, so that will probably end up somewhere on the internet…

So that is all the time I have this week, usually I could write more, but we got a call from President this morning, and he reserved a 1:30 tee time to go golfing…so looks like I will spend P-Day with President Benton, probably picking up tips on how to become a billionaire…temporally, and spiritually…we all have picked golfing nicknames, and mine is Ronnie Blake (my Lufkin Texas high school tennis coach! Love that guy!) so I will send pictures, also it is freezing outside, so I will probably get pig flu. Maybe Michael had pig flu. The King of Pop is gone…also, we have had lengthy discussions about his successor, and the final consensus gives it to Justin Timberlake. JT! Elder Sabey and Woodmansee wanted to crown him right away, but I am not quite ready to say goodbye to MJ (not to be confused with Michael Jordan, another prominent MJ) so Justin, I love you, but Mike is still the King for now, at least until the mourning process is over. Alright, sorry I wasted this whole email talking about Michael Jackson…

I will end talking about the gospel. The Church is true, and Resurrection is a universal gift…mj…Doesn´t matter if you´re black or white, Sean

P.S. did you catch the Michael Jackson song reference in my signoff? Also, I got a wedding announcement from my MTC teacher, Sister Engebretsen! I love her new last name…if she keeps her maiden name as a middle name, she will be Jenna Engebretsen Mangleson…I am not sure there is a more beautiful name known to man. Congrats to her!

Add-On - Week #52 cont.

I forgot that I wanted to say something else about that zone conference at the end of the email. President is really focusing on Patriarchal Blessings, and shared some of his with us, which was interesting. Patriarchal Blessings are probably the most interesting thing to me in the gospel. He told us that his doesn't say anything about serving a mission, but in Sister Benton's it says she will be a great support to him in the missions he will serve. Then he cracked a little joke, "Missions! Not mission...missions! plural! Well...alright, if this one doesn't kill me." Then he let out his Captain Barbosa laugh from Pirates of the Carrrrrrribbbbbbean. Haha I forgot how to spell Carrribbbean so I figure you can't go wrong adding lots of r's and b's...no spelling correction needed Dad. Haha, anyway, I just love Argentina, as unexpectedly hard as this mission is, I find that there are more and more things about this place that I fall in love with, and yesterday I made the personal goal to bring my future family, that is yet to be created, to Argentina so they can experience all the little things. Good stuff.

A few more pics

This may look photoshopped...but that is only because it is such a great picture. I tried to take that atistic looking one for Kittye Bowen, because it is just what she does...

That is a big Basilica (in Lujan)

Celestial Companionship.....

(Elder Gilmore and Elder Sabey)

Group photo with President Benton

Some Pics we got today

Germán, Abril, Sandra and Aaron with Carlos (WardMission Leader)

Sean, Carlos (Ward Mission Leader) Sandra, Fiorella, Cesar (Uncle of girls), Catarina and Elder Sabey

Statue of Belgrano

Street kids in Merlo, just kidding, part of the Figueroa family

Michael and Gabriel in Merlo

Ramos Mejia- Week #52

Lunch with President,after a night in almost jail! This one is good!

Hey, it is me again,

Well I missed last week’s quote by President Benton so I will do four this week…just because

“When we are completely surrounded by the enemy, we can attack in any direction.”

“If you’re doing something, do it over the top. If you’re going to steal some cookies, just steal the whole jar!”

“There are two things you can do in a bad situation—you can do something about it, or you can say ‘oh crud.’”

“I married a high-class lady.”

So this week was pretty eventful, so I have a bunch to cover in not so much time. First I will answer all your questions. With regard to the mail, we really have no idea what works best, other than the packages usually make it safer and in better condition when sent to the CC 92 address, and not Ballesteros, because Ballesteros is the literal address of the offices, and if we are not here they leave the stuff in our small mailbox and the rest gets shipped to Capitál for me to go pick up, so it takes a little longer. Only the packages in Capitál we have to pay postage for, and it runs from 2 pesos (60 cents) to 20 pesos ($6.50 about) so it isn’t that much of a problem. Like I have been charged a bunch over my whole mission, but they have always taken it out of my monthly money and I have never even noticed. I don’t know why some people run out of money in the month. I always have hundreds of pesos left over. People say I will probably be rich because of how I budget my money, reminds me of Grandpa. They send DearElders out Mondays and we usually get them like 10 days later on Wednesday or Thursday, and then the Elders and Sisters would then get them on the following Monday, so about a two week delay, one and a half for me…

So we had our two baptisms on Saturday! Fiorella and Sandra were both baptized, but it took some planning. Obviously every person needs an interview to make sure they are good to go, and if they have big problems they need interviews with President, and it can go even as far as needing President Monson’s permission. Well, I won’t go into details, but Sandra needed an interview with President Benton, so she had one, and they walked out of his office with thumbs up for the baptism, but President says, “Let’s go Elders, we have people to visit.” So we hop in his car with Sandra and drive to her house, and had a lesson with her whole family, with President…it was pretty amazing, and funny because it was like rapid fire questions from him. “Elder Gilmore! Why do we believe this is the true church? (I then teach about the Restoration and all that jazz) Elder Sabey! What happened to the priesthood after José died?”(He teaches about living prophets and Thomas S. Monson) So it was an interesting way to teach to say the least. So the baptisms were great. President came to the service and took a few minutes of the program to tell his conversion story, which was really interesting. He was 22 and in New York. He said that his life was full of everything he wanted, he thought, but soon realized it was only filled with things of the world. He was invited to a baptismal service by his cousins, so he went and it was in a seminary room, and when the baptism was being performed he heard a voice in his head say, “Evrett(correct spelling, he spells it different), you are following the wrong path, you need to change your ways.” He said all he could do was put his head down on his desk and start to cry, and that started his conversion process.

Speaking of President Benton, for our one year mark, we watched a horribly long training video with him from Salt Lake on a new mission office system they are uploading to every mission in the world that is going to make everything more connected and easy to run. So we are leaving the legacy of being the office crew to switch the office to a different system and get her running, but it really isn’t that complicated, actually it is pretty easy. So after that was pretty fun because President took us out to lunch at a place called Texas…and they have burgers and stuff…so that was interesting. President sat with Elder Sabey and I at a separate booth than the rest of the elders and it was so funny, because we figured he would talk about the work, but instead he just shot the breeze with us, asking us about our families and lives. I really think President is trunky for us…because he is always talking to us about what to do after the mission. I try to remember everything but he just shoots out advice like a machine. Then he started talking about his life…and I found out that he is very wealthy…especially when he talked about that one time he bought an 87 million dollar company, but then regretted it…I am pretty sure that Elder Sabey and I were just sitting there with food falling out of our mouths. I can’t believe I know someone like him…like he is a big deal people…google him…I bet there are like 1,000,000 hits. Evrett Wade Benton. So we are having this conversation, and I look up, only to see some kid had written something on the booth in white-out, and what does it say? “Voldemort estuvo aquí” (Voldemort was here) I looked at it, looked at President, looked at the white-out again and thought, “I am not sure how this moment could get any better.” Never thought that is how I would spend my one year mark.

Two more things: Dad received direct revelation when he bought me that international driver’s license! Last Wednesday I was about to be thrown in jail, but it is alright because Elder Sabey was willingly going with me…that is what companions do…we actually wanted to be thrown in jail, how sweet of a story would that have been! Anyway, none of the other Elders have any kind of certification to drive here in Argentina, other than their US license. Well the other Elders called the other night saying that the car had been stolen…not good…so we get over there and ask around and some old man said the police took it…better but not great…at least we knew where it was. So Elder Pollock is trying to figure out how to get this car back without any papers…and I mentioned I had that international drivers permit…bingo! So I grab that and my passport and head to the police station…an interrogation was involved, but really calm and professional, I was really impressed with the officers, because there are bad rumors about how corrupt the police are, but these were some really great men just doing their job. Some kids were throwing rocks at the car and so the police towed it to the station to protect it. He thought we looked a little fishy, but I had international papers so he let us go. He didn’t think I was American…he said I “defended” myself well in Spanish…thanks? So that was exciting.

Last thing is yesterday was zone conference and I am sending pictures because it was in Luján and there is a huge basilica there that is famous, you can probably google that too, and I have a ton of pictures by it…which I will send today…also I think I am sending my memory card in the mail tomorrow so heads up. Lots of pictures and videos…

Love, Sean

Some Pictures

Families can be together forever! About a month ago, at the temple with my son, Elder Latorre

Elder Sabey got a package today, and seeing as I am the mail man, I took the liberty of opening it first, before he saw and unloading its contents...a mountain of fruit roll ups!

Ramos Mejia- Week #51

Mini General Conference

Hey Family and Friends,

Does anyone get tired of these letters I write? I know my family doesn’t but after ONE YEAR of writing letters I wonder if they are still interesting. Anyway, here it is, letter number 52. Cheers to another 52. I got about a million letters from people congratulating me on my year here. So on Thursday is my official one year mark, and I have no idea what we will do, but surely Elder Sabey and I will be exchanging gifts of some sort. It is our one year anniversary together… Also, as to the burning of clothes…I consider that, as the Book of Mormon instructs us, “false traditions of our fathers” and I will not be burning any article of clothing. I need all the clothes I can get. If I do happen to participate in something like that, it will not be my clothing…there are a bunch of spare shirts in our apartment, because every Assistant ends his mission there and leaves a ton of stuff. As to the international driving permit, Dad, I guess it would be good if you sent another one, because mine is about to expire, and I like carrying it around, even though nobody here in the offices uses anything like it. There aren’t really any traffic laws in Argentina, or if there are, they are only enforced in Capitál. We actually just received a “Drive Safe” DVD from the church about guidelines we should follow, and I have to say that it is a pretty sweet movie. It features segments from M. Russell Ballard, Richard G. Scott, Jeffrey R. Holland, and President Uchtdorf. Basically straight Apostolic testimony about driving safely…don’t mess.

Speaking of being instructed by General Authorities, this past week we had an interesting little experience. Last Sunday was stake conference here in Argentina, except it was more than just one stake, and by that I mean it was the whole country of Argentina receiving a satellite broadcast direct from Salt Lake. We were instructed for two hours by four people: Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy, President Osguthorpe of the Sunday School, Elder L. Tom Perry, and President Henry B. Eyring. It was SO GOOD! It was basically another general conference session in the middle of June, and I pretty much loved every minute of it. They made jokes that only make sense in Argentina, like about local soccer teams and foods and stuff so it was really great for the members to feel a little more personal with them. I really enjoyed it. Elder Perry and President Eyring had translators, so we heard in English, then Spanish, then English, then Spanish, which was a little distracting, but at least for me I got to hear twice and take deep notes. It was also the greatest inspiration known to man by President Eyring because he personally invited all who had not done so already to be baptized and take the first step to return to their Father in Heaven. Luckily, we had four investigators there listening and they all felt so strongly about the talk that they all now want to be baptized. I don’t think I will ever figure this work out, or life for that matter. The Lord really just takes care of everything. When I think it will happen one way, it doesn’t, and then when I am least expecting it, four of my investigators are invited personally by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to be baptized. Two of them, Fiorella and Sandra, will be baptized this Saturday, because they have been doing everything right for a while, but just needed to take that next step and decide to be baptized. The other two are still working to get some stuff in order. Sandra is really a choice lady. She is about 30 has two kids with her boyfriend, but has done everything we have asked her in the last three weeks. We taught Word of Wisdom and she quit smoking. We taught Chastity and she kicked her boyfriend out of the house to obey the commandment. We taught Sabbath day and she quit her job. We were sitting in her house last night and talked to us all about her life in Brazil (she is also fluent in Portuguese and it is sooooo cool to hear her speak it when she gets flustered) and how she had to go there and her and her boyfriend (who also wants to be baptized but is quitting smoking, he is down to 1 every three days from 20 every day) would live on trains and in the Amazon and stuff. I was sitting there and thought to myself, “This is insane. I can’t believe that I am listening to this woman who has gone through so much in her life, and Sean Gilmore from Lakewood, CA, the little boy who always wanted to go on a mission, but never knew what it actually was, is sitting in a small humble house in Ramos Mejia, Argentina with this woman, this sweet daughter of a Loving God, that he is teaching to help receive the restored gospel of the Savior in her life. What are the odds? How is the Lord not the Creator of the Heavens and Earth? How does God not know who I am? How is this not the kingdom of God on the earth? It just all kind of hit me…I loved it. It only happens every once in a while, but I try to soak it all in when those moments come.

So if you are wondering why I am writing so late, it is because today was the “Conferencia de las Hermanas”…Sisters' Conference…all the sister missionaries had a big conference with President and Hermana Benton today…and it was time to put on the house elf hat and serve food, clean up, and make sure everything went off without a hitch. Basically…goodbye P-day. When it was over, my office was infiltrated…and bombarded by sister missionaries with raised voices, basically demanding that I give them what they want, because they couldn’t wait until mail day. President walked by, looked in, kind of chuckled, shook his head and kept walking. I guess it happens often. So I grabbed my hatchet, and told them to back off if or else, and by that I mean I cracked under pressure and folded to their every will. You just can’t be mean to the Hermanas…it is morally wrong. Plenty of elders have walked in demanding things and I tell them to beat it or ask nicely or something…but with the Hermanas you just keep your mouth shut and give them all they ask for. Funny thing is, I actually do have a hatchet in my office, I really have just about everything, and most of it I have no idea why we have it, but must be for some reason.

I felt like I had more I wanted to say, but I can’t remember any of it. Oh yeah, the weather, seeing how it is winter here. So right now would technically be called December 16th in the States, because we are in complete opposite seasons, so here in the offices we are only playing Christmas music, also patriotic music because the 4th of July is coming up, so it is a pretty interesting mix. It actually is not that cold outside, and usually I don’t wear a coat until night time. Also, I wish you could watch what goes on in here in a movie, because I promise it is exactly like the Office. Today we had an office moment, where we all ordered Chinese takeout, but huddled into a little room, too small for all of us, to eat it because we were hiding from the sister missionaries. So we were all eating having a good time, and every time we heard voices, all got quiet, and we looked at each other and fear filled the eyes of the Assistants, while Elder Woodmansee whispers, “the others!”…oh uh…guess you had to be there. Also, President Benton just called my cell phone and we were just shooting the breeze…and by that I mean I have to do something right now for him, so take care everyone and have a great week filled with fun summer activities…ah kind of sad…but it’s ok, I have fun office activities to do. Love you.

Love Sean

Pictures

Sean got to go back to Merlo on Saturday for Matias' baptism. Matias is the son of Antonia who he baptized last transfer. This picture is of Antonia, Mikaela, Sean, Matias and Elder Latorre.

Sean, Matias and Elder Latorre

Sean also wanted us to notice his new chocolate sprinkle tie he got really cheap


This is a picture of all the office Elders and APs with President and Sister Benton in the mission home.

Ramos Mejia- Week #50

We all live in a material world...

Hey Everyone,

President Benton Quote of the Week: "If they find me dead, they´ll find an empty quiver - because I´ll have had given it all I´ve got."

Well, I just wrote a huge e-mail thinking that the internet was safe here in the offices, but unfortunately no it isn’t, because everything froze and shut off…so here I go again. Well, after one week of being here in the offices, I have come to the conclusion that I didn’t know there was so much work to be done in here. We have deadlines like crazy, and sometimes it gets a little stressful. Also, it is only my first week so I don’t really know much about the job yet. There are six of us here in the offices, the two assistants, Elder Pollock and Elder Woodmansee, who both were my zone leaders at one point in time, so I already know them pretty well. Elder Sabey and I live with them, and then there are two more elders, Elder Frost and Elder Varela who are in charge of the mission finances and the apartments of the mission respectively. My basic duties are sort mail, go to Capitál every week to pick up packages, (also thanks for the package mom and dad, it was great! I loved the videos!) I also have a ton of reports that I have to write up for President Benton about the divisions that were done between zone leaders and district leaders, all the teaching evaluations that were done, and the weekly letters that every missionary writes to him. I also go on a mail run every Monday, and deliver everything that has come in, so I basically drive around the whole mission every Monday, it takes a few hours. Another thing is that I call the distribution center every week to send orders for all the things we need like copies of the Book of Mormon or Bibles or DVDs or whatever. There are huge shelves in my office just full of cool church stuff. It is pretty fun. There are four computers here in the office and six elders so we have to share, but I basically can get on whenever I want, but not onto the internet or anything. President said that probably the most temptation is found here in the office because of the ease of access to the internet, but also said, “That is why only the most obedient Elders are called in to work in the offices.” I took that as an indirect compliment. He also called me in for a short interview last week to see how I was doing and see if I needed anything. He told me exactly why I am here in the offices, and it was just a really great interview. He said that my time in the offices “is going to be very special. Elder, when you get home, you are going to have to balance your time between studies, work, church callings, and a young family. For anybody, that is going to be hard, but if you use this time in the office to learn how to balance your time between the office work, the missionary work, and your gospel studies, when you get home, you will be miles ahead of everyone else.” So I am going to really try and use this time well in the offices. I am actually really busy today because the new missionaries are coming in like 30 minutes and I just took this small time to write, because basically I don’t have P-days anymore…sort of. I do, it is just, I have it unless something more important is going on. Elder Sabey is great. We are loving it here. When everyone saw us up on the slideshow together there was a general “noooo waaaaaaaay” that echoed throughout the room. We received various comments about how this will either be the companionship that gets the most done, or goofs off most. The revolution has begun…

So I went back to a baptism I had on Saturday, it was great. Matias was baptized. He is the son of Antonia and brother of Mikaela, who Elder Arriola and I baptized last transfer. Speaking of sons, my little boy is all grown up now with his second companion. Today he turns 2 months in the mission! He baptized Matias. Matias asked me to do it, but I remembered the vow I made 10 months ago when I first got to Argentina, that if I ever trained, my companion would be the one to perform his first baptism, so true to my word, we convinced Matias to let Elder Latorre do it. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, and the baptism was great. It helped too, that I disappeared one week before the baptism, and then just randomly showed up for the service. Anyway, it has been a really busy week, and next week I will be able to write more because we will have a normal p-day sort of, they told me that the first week of every transfer basically you don’t have p-day. So I will be writing more next week, and I hope everyone is doing well. I am just trying to make sure I don’t put the mission into debt by buying too many things…actually I inherited a small crisis…we are already at 131% of our budget used for the year…that is like 31% more than all the money I am supposed to use for the year…but we already have some plans to fix that…like raise the price of everything in the mission! But yeah…just everyday problems here…in the office. Actually this is just like the show The Office…because really funny stuff happens and it is almost as if it is scripted. I love it. I love you. I love Heavenly Father.

Love, Sean

Ramos Mejia- Week #49

I'm a House Elf

Hey Mom and Dad, and others…

That is crazy to hear all that news about Elder Nelson and all; also I am glad to hear that the California trip went well. My week was pretty eventful, so sit back, read carefully and try to keep up, because I only have an hour on this thing.

So long story short, I haven’t been having the best couple of weeks, and had a few problems with my companion. The zone leaders were about ready to kill him and I had to play mediator to calm things down, and have been labeled as the most patient Elder in the zone, possibly mission, by them and others, including good old President Benton. Needless to say, with this huge torment of disappointment, frustration, and downright not having a good time, the Lord once again showed me in my life that his Arms are extended towards me. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said it perfectly when he said, “"Every time we reach out, however feebly, for Him, we discover He has been anxiously trying to reach us!" I can honestly say that is true, and I didn’t realize it until after the fact, when I looked back on how things have played out. Needless to say, I was pretty excited and anxious to have my interview last Wednesday, and I think it is safe to say that in the 40 minutes I was in the room with President Benton my life changed, or at least my outlook on life, and how I look at situations. He first congratulated me on the work I have done with Elder Latorre. He said it was no coincidence that he is with me, because there are few Elders that would be able to teach him how to work, without offending him, or causing conflicts. I have always been a pretty laid back guy, so I didn’t think much of it. I just talked more with him about everything on my mind basically. Every single little thing…and he listened…and then blew my mind with his advice and authority with which he spoke. I felt like I was sitting just talking with Dad for a while, which was exactly what I needed, and then it slowly changed into speaking directly with the Lord. I literally felt like I was in an interview with Jesus Christ, and you can’t ask for anything more than that. I can say that my testimony of the importance of Priesthood Leaders skyrocketed in that meeting. He was able to discern my thoughts and feelings, when I myself couldn’t express them in words, and then told me exactly what I needed to hear. He said that he had been praying for me all week, and he didn’t know why. So I came out of there pretty alleviated. Only to have my world rocked again not even 12 hours later…

So we leave the interview, and Elder Latorre and I work for the day and then that night, Wednesday, we get a knock on the door at about 10:20, 10 minutes before bedtime. It was the Assistants, and they wanted to talk to me. Horror struck my heart…I literally thought somebody in the family died…because you don’t just get visits like that so late.

Elder Pollock looks at me all serious and says, “Elder Gilmore, how are you?” They never speak in English to us…I am expecting the worst at this point. “We have a message for you from President”.
Me-“What happened?”
Pollock- “Well, Elder Harper is leaving the offices, and President has chosen you to take his place as Secretary!”
Me-“But Elder Sabey is secretary.”
Pollock-“There are two; you will be Secretary of Materials! Congratulations.”
Me-I don’t want to go to the offices…but ok…wait…who is my companion?”
Pollock-Elder Sab…
Me-“ELDER SABEY IS MY COMPANION!!!!! YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH ! When do I leave?
Pollock-as soon as you are packed.

So yes, I have not been in Merlo for a week. We have to leave right now, but I will write more in the afternoon, because we have to leave…but we are in the offices and have computers! It is pretty sweet.

(part 2)

So yeah I showed up to the offices and started my work as the Secretary of Materials, and Elder Sabey from my BYU ward/MTC district is my companion, it is nuts. Basically the best way I can describe it is through a Harry Potter analogy, obviously. Let’s say that the mission is Hogwarts, Dumbledore-President Benton, the teachers-Zone leaders, District leaders- Prefects, Missionaries-Students, and now what I am, an office elder …basically we are the behind the scenes missionaries. Before, I never knew how the copies of the Book of Mormon or the pamphlets, or the materials we needed magically showed up at our meetings…but now I do because it is my job. I have a huge inventory of every single church thing you could possibly want…and that is why, the only comparison you can make to my job is…house elf…yes, I am officially a house elf of the mission. I will officially take over on Monday when transfers end/start. Other than that, I am just trying to learn everything that goes on here. People say that being in the offices stinks because you can’t work all day…but we will be changing that. Pres told us that Elder Sabey and I are in here to revolutionize how missionary work is done in the offices…and I plan on doing it. I walk around with a pen and paper all day because President Benton shoots out quotes like none other. I will start a weekly quote list.

This week’s quote is: “If it wasn´t for women, we´d probably all be living under bridges. Except there would be no bridges, because we probably wouldn´t bother to build them."Haha he is sweet.

Well that is about all the time I have for this week. I will be able to give more details next week. This is crazy because I never thought I would be an office elder. I am sure it will be a great opportunity to learn from President, and it was a real pick-me-up just when I needed it.

Well, I will write more next week.

Love, Sean